On Friday, we left my Mom to enjoy a Ranger program and we headed out to climb to Angels Landing. It was only a 1,400 elevation change over 5+ miles with a lot of switchbacks along the way. Has anyone reading this ever done the climb?

Well, I haven’t done it either! It is not a really hard hike but it is unbelievably precarious. When I realized that I was hanging on to the chains for dear life (and that there weren’t going to be chains all the way,) I figured it was time to turn back.

I don’t always mind heights . . . but you are right on the edge here and if you trip this is where you land:

There is nothing to break your fall. Did I mention that six people have died on this trail?

Instead, we hiked to this:

Pretty impressive, isn’t it?!? This is Cabin Spring on the West Rim Trail. The hike was definitely not about the destination. First, we were really all alone on the trail. We passed two groups of backpackers and one retired ranger, but that was it.

This hike was spectacular. We had a very long climb to get to the Spring but it was worth it.

We enjoyed a rest under this magnificent Ponderosa Pine before heading back down the trail.

The views were just phenomenal . . . we were able to enjoy them a lot more on the way down!

Once we got a little lower, you could see where we had been . . . that is the Cabin Spring in the center of the picture – at the top.

It looked like the trail had been blasted out of the canyon wall and much of it had very old and deteriorated concrete paving. You can just see it in the foreground of this picture and then switch-backing up the canyon wall behind . . .

It was a long, hot day but at least it was down hill almost all the way back to camp: